Nantwich Town drew a game for only the second time this season with a 1-1 draw against Clitheroe at the EcoGiants Stadium, writes Liam Price.
In-form goalscorer Kai Evans missed out through suspension after accruing five yellow cards.
Courtney Meppen-Walters came in in a change of system by Jon Moran.
Just four minutes in came a big opening for Callum Saunders, given a rare chance to play up front.
He bore down on goal and saw keeper Hakan Burton slip but could only hit it at him.
Saunders didn’t have to wait long to make amends for his earlier miss.
A quarter of an hour in and the ball dropped kindly for him in the box but he was quick to react and roll it under Burton for his fourth goal of the season.
Sam Olawumi headed over the bar from a Clitheroe corner, before Ben Garratt had to be sharp off his line to block from Luke Gill after Meppen-Walters sold him slightly short with a backpass.
Parny whipped an effort narrowly over the crossbar as the home side bounced back well from going behind early.
Moran made his first tactical tweak shortly after, going from a five at the back to a four with Bourne temporarily shifting into midfield.
This stabilised things and allowed the Dabbers to start building chances again.
The ball broke in the box for Byron Harrison and Burton clumsily, but cleanly in the eyes of the referee, got to the ball.
Saunders had the ball in the net again but was denied by the offside flag.
Olawumi miscued another shot for the home side, then Saunders once more came close, firing over off his right foot on the cusp of half time.
Another adjustment from Moran came with the half time sub of Matty Tweedley for Nathan Sandison, and that too worked well.
His tenacious running caused Clitheroe problems from the earliest moments of the second half.
He snuck in behind on 52 minutes but couldn’t quite find Saunders with his ball across.
Tom Pratt drove a shot into a crowd of bodies as they failed to close him down from the angle so he decided to go for it.
Then Tweedley curled over the bar as he looked for his first Nantwich goal.
Pratt fired wide as the Dabbers continued to play some sharp football but were not troubling Burton enough in the Clitheroe goal.
It was then Clitheroe manager Jimmy Bell’s turn to use his bench to good effect. A double sub on 70 minutes gave them more legs in the middle and it showed immediately.
A Blues corner was flicked out to the edge of the box and blasted back in towards goal. It could have gone anywhere but was just blocked away.
The next corner was not dealt with anywhere near as well.
A rare lapse in the defensive set up allowed Gonzales a virtually unchallenged header to make it 1-1 with 15 or so minutes to go.
Gonzales was being allowed too much space in general play, where in the first half Paddy Kennedy and Meppen-Walters were engaging him high they now dropped deeper and allowed him to dictate.
A header looped wide for Clitheroe and another last ditch block stopped another effort.
The home side wasted a direct free kick not far outside the Dabbers box.
A series of Nantwich corners relieved some pressure but were all wasted. The delivery of Sandison was missed after his withdrawal.
The home side had a couple of openings to win it.
One was flashed across the face of goal, and the last was a header planted over the crossbar.
The draw was the right result, with 70 good minutes from Nantwich and 20 not so good, serving up Moran’s first draw of his managerial career.
The results keeps the Dabbers nicely placed in third spot in the Northern Premier League West with two home games to come over the next week.
(Pics by Jonathan White)
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